LV11

The design of the 'Sharpnose' trucks soon became accepted and loved by the customers, since it was both functional and well-suited to the design trend of the era.

When a slightly heavier version of the Sharpnose truck was developed in 1940 as a successor to the LV79, it was natural to use an existing design rather than new one for the lighter, modern truck, especially since the LV79 had had an identical design to the LV76/LV78 trucks. This had been superseded in 1938 and 1939 by 'Sharpnose' trucks.

The bridge between light-duty and heavy-duty
The LV11 series of trucks was the bridge between the light-duty Volvo trucks and the rugged heavy-duty Volvo trucks. In reality, the chassis of the LV11 vehicle was very similar to the heavier trucks in the Volvo family, and the driveline components (all made within Volvo, of course) were slightly old-fashioned but well-tried components which had been used for several years in, for instance, the LV8 series of trucks. The latter was also to some extent superseded by the LV11.

Despite the rather modest (legal) Gross Vehicle Weight of the LV11, pictures from the 1940s often show this range of vehicles in heavy applications like construction work, where chassis components such as frame, suspension and axles were subject to great stress, especially considering the overloads which were normal in those days.

A standard Swedish truck
The LV11 became a standard Swedish truck (not many were exported, due to the rugged design and the resulting relatively high price compared with cheaper and less strong foreign competitors). It was revised on two occasions, in 1947 (when the succeeding LV105 series was presented) and slightly later, when the LV105 was superseded by the L20 series of trucks. The changes were, however, rather small.

The popularity of this generation of trucks and its components meant that, when it was superseded by the L34 range of trucks, the chassis and the components of the L20 trucks were used once again, more or less without changes, but with a bonnet, wings and cab of modern design.